Project FD RX-7

[Goodspeed]

Good work will keep being done, especially if I keep expanding the end result at the end of the tunnel just when I think I'm done buying parts   . Thanks guys!

So are all these interior bits and pieces gonna be installed by a shop or are you gonna DIY this when the weather warms up. 

If it's the latter, let me know, I'll totally come polish screws for you or something.

So now is as good a time as any to hint at where the car will hopefully be going for the bulk of the restomodding.  The interior will be the last to be addressed so I may very well do all this here, but we'll see what shakes out.  Things are still in the planning phases so nothing is set in stone, but I'm really, really excited for this part.

Many of you, well...more-so the old timers, may know one of our very own aluMMni, Ryan Farrell.  Ryan was part of the MM wrecking crew back in the ~'05-'09 days, rocking a white FB RX-7 back when I had my 3rd-gen Supra and generally talking everyone's ear off about how neat rotaries are in-between hitting the rev-limit buzzer in his quasi-jalopy of a car.  He's a great dude and has shown up to recent MM shows in his silver FD, so keep an eye out in the future if he makes it down from NJ.





Anyways, Ryan would often share pictures and videos at meetings of his older brother Rich's exploits with his red '93 R1 FD back in the day.  I never met him back then, but understood that he was somewhat of a well-known figure in the FD community stateside for being extremely knowledgeable about these cars (and sharing the wealth of his knowledge with the members of RX7Club with 10's of thousands of posts), and having a hand in building some really top-shelf examples over the years.

Fast forward to more recent times - I finally joined RX7Club in 2015 after lurking the boards for several years prior, and got a fuller picture of just how serious Rich is about making these cars tick better and better.  I learned that Rich helped start one of the top RX-7 shops in the country that's still going strong today (it was his night job to help port and build motors and other facets of their builds before he moved for his "real" job) and followed his build threads of cars that starred at the Deals Gap Rotary Rally and in magazines. He's had his hands on these cars since the 90's and it shows...IMO, Rich has built some of the nicest FD's in the world, whether they be his own or customer cars (he currently owns 4 of them, from a 1100-mile stock car to a 20B 3 rotor).  Here's some of his work, starting with his old '93 R1







"Supernaut" 's on RX7Club LHD Spirit-R replica







And one of his current cars, a '95:









As luck would have it, I had been messaging with Ryan a bit about plans for the car, but actually reached out to a random RX7Club member in the NE who had posted a review about a shop he visited for some rotary work.  It turns out this member is actually a friend of both Ryan and Rich, and put me in touch with Rich directly.  Lo and behold, Rich doesn't really advertise, but he does work on FD's personally in his spare time, one at a time.  

After talking with him and Ryan, and seeing where I wanted to go with the car, he offered his services to help restore and build the car.  He seems like he'd take the shirt off his back for a fellow enthusiast and his attention to detail is through the roof, so it's my hope that we can continue to scheme plans and ultimately get the car in his hands to put his touch on it.  Fingers crossed!